Australia has pledged an extra $25 million in aid to Iraq and Syria, where millions of men, women and children are suffering a worsening humanitarian tragedy.
On Tuesday United States secretary of State John Kerry described the scenes in Syria as reminiscent of the aftermath of World War II. 
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was to make the aid pledge at a gathering of donors in London on Thursday, which has widened into a forum discussing how the country can possibly recover from its civil war. She was to announce that Australia will deploy 10 Australian Civilian Corps specialists to Jordan and Lebanon.
They will work in education, protection, water, sanitation and logistics projects and help bridge the gap between emergency relief and longer-term development needs.
At a meeting in Rome on Tuesday, attended by foreign ministers from the "small group" coalition, including Australia, fighting against the Islamic State, Mr Kerry said the humanitarian crisis in Syria was "getting worse by the day, not better".
More than 13 million Syrians were urgently in need of aid, of whom 6 million were children, he said. Hundreds of thousands were trapped in areas where food deliveries were rare and non-existent.
He is to attend the Supporting Syria meeting in London on Thursday alongside Ms Bishop and world leaders. The meeting, co-hosted by Britain, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, and the United Nations, is being billed as a "donors conference" raising money for humanitarian aid for the civil war-torn country.
Ms Bishop was to call for a serious negotiation leading to a ceasefire as a prelude to lasting peace.
Australia's response to the Syria and Iraq crises includes: humanitarian assistance of $230 million since 2011; military contribution to the "anti-Daesh" (Islamic State) coalition which is expected to cost $400 million this financial year alone; and offering permanent resettlement to 12,000 Syrian refugees at a cost of $830 million over four years. On Tuesday, Ms Bishop said it was the turn of other countries, not Australia, to add military power to the international coalition fighting IS.
Australia will draw the new aid out of its emergency relief fund.
The government's foreign aid budget is slimmer after $7.6 billion was cut from the aid program over five years, the biggest savings measure announced in the 2014 budget. Another $1 billion was cut in the 2015 budget.